Salvaging What's Left of Cro Cop's Career

An all-points bulletin was issued in London last night and a search-and-rescue mission was officially launched in hopes of finding anything resembling Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s once promising UFC career following his unanimous-decision loss to Cheick Kongo.

As it stands now, Cro Cop’s UFC career is in ruin, and he’s on the verge of going down as the biggest bust in company history.

During Saturday’s match vs. Kongo at UFC 75, Cro Cop was dwarfed by a fighter with respectable — but far less accomplished — striking credentials who was bigger, faster, stronger, and on this night, better.

This isn’t a case of overreacting. The UFC has a serious problem on its hands from a business standpoint. They canâ??t just hit the restart button and do another take when it comes to Cro Cop. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

There is no commission in the UK, so it wasn’t reported what Cro Cop made vs. Gonzaga at UFC 70, and it won’t be reported what he made last night vs. Kongo. What we do know is that he was paid at least $350,000 for his debut at UFC 67 against Eddie Sanchez. I have no idea how his contract is structured, but I’m operating under the assumption that what he’s been paid for his last two matches is pretty damn close to the first.

Normally you’d just send a fighter in Cro Copâ??s situation down the card and have him fight nondescript opponents during the non-televised portion of the card. But $350,000 is a lot to pay a guy to fight in matches that will only be seen by a live audience or subscribers of the UFC’s on-demand video service. He would go down in history as the most expensive non-televised fighter to ever appear on a fight card.

The doom and gloom lies in the fact that we were told by the Cro Cop apologists that after a devastating knockout that we always see a better and badder Crop Cop. Well, I’m not exactly sure what we saw last night. Pointing to a reason for his loss isn’t as easy as it was against Gonzaga. Cro Cop appeared to be in great shape (he had more definition in his physique than usual), and by all accounts, he appeared motivated and relaxed (was it me or did he even crack what somewhat resembled a smile when they showed him getting his hands taped?).

And when it came to the match, he actually didn’t look that bad. The problem is, he just didn’t look all that good. It wasn’t as if he went out there and totally got his ass handed to him. He went the distance and came out of the match in decent shape. He took a lot of punches to the face, knees to the body, and kicks to his lower leg, but he was able to deliver some offense as well. What we saw last night was not Cro Cop vs. Randleman or Cro Cop vs. Gonzaga.

The issue is that nobody lives in fear of the left high kick anymore. In the past, Cro Cop could be in control of the match and stalk his prey. Now, he is the hunted one, and fighting on his heels is not something he apparently likes. You could see the frustration in his body language. It was almost as if he took it as a personal affront that Kongo had the audacity to impose his will.

Perhaps Cro Cop should spend some time at The Pit in California working with John Hackleman and Chuck Liddell so he can learn how to strike while moving backward. If there was one thing I learned last night, it was that while Cro Cop has a background in counter-terrorism, he isn’t much for counter striking. In the meantime, the UFC needs to have an emergency meeting at its Las Vegas offices first thing Monday morning to figure out what’s next for their Croatian destroyer.

I have some ideas of my own.

Lock him out of the gym for three months and tell him to not even think about fighting. Then, after he spends some time with Georges St. Pierre’s sports psychologist, you can schedule him for a showcase match. The problem is that Cro Cop vs. Sanchez II isn’t something that can happen again. Unless the UFC goes outside the organization and serves up Wes Sims, there really aren’t any guaranteed wins — and would anyone take a win over someone like Sims or Brad Imes seriously? You could put him in with Heath Herring or Frank Mir, two fighters he would be heavily favored against, but if he lost to Kongo, then he could lose to either.

You could really think out of the box and loan his contract out to another organization. I’m not sure if his contract is transferable, but a match in Japan for HEROâ??S might not be a bad idea. While he wasn’t the draw that Kazushi Sakuraba, Hidehiko Yoshida or even Fedor Emelianenko or Wanderlei Silva were/are, Cro Cop was still very popular in the land of the rising sun.

Let him go to Japan, and let them put him against the kind of obvious tomato can that the UFC is so far above at this point. Let HEROâ??S foot most of the bill for Cro Cop’s fight, and in return, get them to loan Kid Yamamoto to Zuffa LLC and the WEC for one fight. With Yamamoto in tow, perhaps the WEC could hold their first-ever pay-per-view event built about a Yamamoto vs. Urijah Faber dream match. Then again, would the WEC want to risk a loss by their poster boy to a fighter not even under contract to the company?

In reality there’s only one option that makes sense, and that’s a forced move to light heavyweight. Cro Cop won’t want to do it, but if I’m Dana White and company, I would tell his management that he doesn’t have a choice: either cut weight, or be cut. He can either fight at 205 or have his contract accelerated and take his chances that another fight promotion may or may not offer him what he’s scheduled to make with the UFC.

Cro Cop says he doesn’t want to cut the weight, but it can be done. If he alters his diet, he can go from 220 to 215 or 212. Hell, if he cut down on the number of squat thrusts he does, then he could lose all the weight by reducing the size of his tree trunk thighs. Once he got down to the 212-215 range, he could probably sweat the rest of the weight off two days before his fight. He’s never really had to cut weight, and I’m sure he won’t enjoy the process, but a few hours in a sauna suit is a small price to pay for $350,000.

The prospect of Cro Cop at 205 pounds would be daunting. Instead of being an undersized heavyweight, he’d be a gigantic light heavyweight. He wouldn’t have to worry about being dwarfed by guys like Gonzaga and Kongo, and he could go back to stalking his opponents. Once again, Cro Cop would be someone to be feared. Starting over in a new weight class would be enough to resell him to fans like me who have lost complete faith in him. The money matchups are also endless. Cro Cop vs. Liddell, Cro Cop vs. Shogun, Cro Cop vs. Rampage, Cro Cop vs. Silva III, and Cro Cop vs. Ortiz.

If Cro Cop refuses to make the move, then if I were the UFC, I’d put his contract up for auction on eBay with no reserve price and use the proceeds to pay for Fedor and Brock Lesnar.

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